Lunar legacy

Friday

Sep 28, 2007 at 12:01 AMSep 28, 2007 at 2:55 PM

Yes, kids, it's true: Less than 40 years ago, over a four-year period, the United States sent 10 manned spacecraft to the moon. Six of those missions involved landings, during which 12 Americans walked on the surface.

Yes, kids, it's true: Less than 40 years ago, over a four-year period, the United States sent 10 manned spacecraft to the moon. Six of those missions involved landings, during which 12 Americans walked on the surface.

The historical events might seem less real than Star Wars to generations born after the last mission returned, in December 1972. Fortunately, we have the films and first-person accounts to prove otherwise.

In the Shadow of the Moon combines NASA footage from the Apollo program into a thrilling, sweeping adventure. Mostly by following the chronology of the program, it provides a more informative history than a previous documentary on the subject called For All Mankind.

For all the spectacular views and informative details, the element most likely to charm audiences is the commentary provided by the men who flew in the capsules and kicked up the lunar dust.

Three of the astronauts have died, and reclusive first moon-walker Neil Armstrong declined to participate. But most of the rest -- including Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Gene Cernan, Jim Lovell and Alan Bean -- appear on camera to share their unimaginable experiences.

The last time we heard from most of them, they were young team players who spoke with robotic control in the acronymic language of the space agency. Rarely did they allow themselves outbursts of unguarded emotion or impromptu poetry.

Today, they are men in their 70s who have had half a lifetime to reflect on what they saw and felt, and to put their memories into simple eloquence. Their commentary brims with humor, candor and the occasional embarrassing admission that humanizes them long after their moments of glory.

Michael Collins, the member of the Apollo 11 crew whose job was to stay in the command module and circle the moon while crew mates Armstrong and Aldrin were taking small steps and giant leaps on the moon surface, insists that he felt not lonely or left out but exhilarated. For several orbits, he was the first human being ever to fly alone around the dark side of the moon.

Collins provides several fresh moments. Unlike some of his fellow space travelers who rhapsodize about the majesty and beauty of the lunar landscape, he remembers that the moon up close struck him as "not welcoming, hostile and scary."

The familiar images are here: the Saturn V booster rising, almost in slow motion, off the launchpad; the lunar rover bumping along the rocky surface; the view of Earth hanging like a fragile plastic ball in the black distance of space.

Yet the movie has new information even for those who paid close attention as it was happening: the revelations that the astronauts themselves were allowed valuable input into the design of equipment and systems; detailed impressions of the violent shimmy of the capsule as the rocket climbed into orbit; a vivid recollection of one crewman that only a fraction of an inch on the other side of his window lay the immediate death of airless space.

Perhaps the most sobering news is that President Nixon filmed a national address from the Oval Office to be broadcast if the Apollo 11 lunar module failed to re-dock with the command module, leaving Armstrong and Aldrin to perish on the lunar surface.

Who knew that presidents recorded alternative addresses to the nation, especially one so tragic that just reading it aloud must have felt eerie?

One small quibble with an otherwise-stirring documentary: Director David Sington, a BBC veteran, shot the interviews in unnecessarily tight close-ups. Maybe the intention was to demonstrate how cramped those capsules must have felt, but the viewer is often tempted to play a mental game of Connect the Liver Spots.

fgabrenya@dispatch.com

THEME OF THE DAY Each Friday, Life & Arts showcases material related to big-screen movies.